Outlast is Just Too Much

As much as I love spooky games, there’s a certain variety that I just can’t handle. These don’t just create a creepy atmosphere or build a feeling of dread like Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem do. Nope, these games go straight for the throat with their scares, and it gets me every time. Every time I attempt one, there’s always a point where I say “nope” and quit the game never to return. Outlast is probably the worst of these.

Outlast was probably the scariest game I’ve ever played. It wasn’t because of the enemy design or disturbing visuals. Rather, it was the fact that my character was basically helpless and the game does its best to remind me every chance it gets. From the moment I entered Mount Massive Asylum, I had the distinct feeling that I was either being watched or was in immediate danger, and that feeling never let up until the moment I stopped playing.

As you might’ve guessed, I’ve never finished Outlast; I didn’t even come close. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I only made it about 2 or 3 chapters in before deciding I’d had enough. I couldn’t handle constantly being stalked by enemies or getting chased around in the dark. It was jut so tense! I was constantly getting discovered despite my best efforts, and I could hardly ever afford to use my camera for fear of running out of batteries. So for most of my time in the asylum I was stumbling around in the dark trying to evade capture by the noticeably disturbed inmates. I was able to progress, but it always felt like I was doing so by the bare skin of my teeth.

I think the point I noped out at was one where I was stuck in a certain wing of the asylum and I had to get past this one dude in order to continue onward. I was dark save for a very inconveniently-placed fire, and was mostly barren of good hiding places. So I kept getting either discovered, burned or both, and I just could not avoid this guy. There were a couple of points where I was hiding and holding my breathe thinking that this was going to be the time that he finally gives up, only to see that ugly face pop-in right in front of me before sending me back before my last checkpoint. I probably could have gotten over it eventually, but I watched ahead a bit on YouTube and decided that finishing wasn’t worth another several heart attacks.

I’ve seen Outlast receive quite a bit of praise over the years for being a very scary game, and I know that many people out there love. It’s great that it succeeded and great that people enjoy it, but Outlast is most definitely not a game for me. It’s just too terrifying (and frustrating).

What do you think of Outlast and its sequel? Were you able to finish them? Is there another game that spooked you into quitting?